Carles Gil was the only No. 10 on the scoresheet in Saturday's 1-1 draw between the New England Revolution and Inter Miami CF.

Lionel Messi created four chances and fired three shots on target for .49 expected assists and .64 expected goals, but he wasn't able to manufacture a goal.

The team's defensive effort – including Turner's nine saves – neutralized Messi, which the Revs couldn't do in their four previous meetings.

“When Messi gets on the ball, obviously he’s the best player in the history of this game and it’s not easy to defend him one-v-one," head coach Marko Mitrovic said. "But we wanted to be sure that certain passes that make his career, that we are very aware of those runners, and we can track them. So, [we] eliminated those options.

"Everything is easy to say and put on paper, but when you play against players like Messi, to execute, is not easy. I know he had some very good moments today in the game, but I also know that we had moments where we were very good against [Messi] and I’m very pleased with that.”

Gil opened the scoring when he picked up a ball from Dor Turgeman in the 56th minute before putting it past Dayne St. Clair. He now has two goals and two assists on the season.

But Gil's influence can't be summarized this way. Mitrovic describes the star midfielder as a "humble, grounded person, who comes to training sessions every day and gives his best effort."

He has the ability to affect the game at a moment's notice.

"He scored a goal today and two games ago [against Columbus], but I don’t want to just look at Carles through the numbers, like, 'Oh, he scored this amount of goals or he has this amount of assists,'" Mitrovic said. "There are so many other great things that he does on the field outside of the direct impact on scoring goals. We know he has the talent to change the game for us.”

Alhassan Yusuf, who was all over the field on Saturday, highlighted Gil's off-ball contributions.

"I’ve never seen [Gil] defend this much," Yusuf said. "I’ve been here one-and-a-half years, but I think these games he’s really put in the work defensively."

While Miami fought back to earn a 1-1 draw, the Revs will return home having collected four points in four days, an impressive feat after losing their first three road games.

Gil had three 90-minute performances in the last eight days. Efforts like that that helped the Revs extend their unbeaten run to five.

"Our guys gave literally everything," Mitrovic said. "In some moments, I felt we just didn’t have enough energy to maybe be cleaner on the ball in some crucial moments. But I’m very pleased with the effort from the guys. This is our fifth game in a row, and playing every four days, with the travel, I’m very pleased with the effort from the players."